Car Races for the Rest of Us

For most of us, cars serve a specific purpose. They get us to work, our vacation destinations, carry groceries and kids, and are basically just vehicles for transport. Few of us have ever really tested the limits of our sports sedan or the clearance on our SUV, let alone seen what a real, high-performance vehicle is capable of. “Driving is really the only sport where people don’t tend to use coaches,” says Johnny O’Connell, the winningest driver in the history of Sebring International Raceway. “The best money any driver will ever spend is that which is spent at one of the country’s top racing schools.” With that in mind, we chose these 13 schools, events, and experiences that aim to help reconnect us the road, the dirt, and the horsepower in our engines.